The humour might not work for everyone but I thought it was a very enjoyable story. 🐖
The humour might not work for everyone but I thought it was a very enjoyable story. 🐖
I‘m afraid I cannot recommend this book, despite it being about an important topic. I thought it was an organizational mess. I also felt that way about his previous book called Deep Dark Down so clearly this just isn‘t an author for me. I don‘t like his style at all. 😵💫
I‘m reading my way through Natalia Ginzburg and so far these two novellas have been my favourite. 🇮🇹
A good book for discussion. It is very bleak but it tells a good story. 🇮🇳
I know the inside of a book is more important than the outside… but isn‘t this a pretty thing? 🌺
I have been listening to this huge essay collection over the last several weeks and I have loved the experience. They are well written and so thought provoking. A excellent reflection on history but surprisingly applicable to our current times. 🤔
The end of a run on Toni Morrison. A bit emotionally draining to read them all back to back , but a wonderful way to get to know and understand an author. It was reading time well spent. 📖
It‘s awkward to be the only person posting about this book who didn‘t love it. I thought it was in desperate need of editing and lacked continuity. He touched on so many interesting topics but didn‘t develop any of them. I think it would have worked much better as a collection of connected stories. Disappointed 🫤
Well worth reading if you are a big Morrison fan. I particularly enjoyed the essays where she discusses her own books, but there were also a handful of essays that were very heavy handed. And the themes were a bit repetitive. It‘s still a privilege to read her work. 🏆
A real mix of mood, content and narrative voice in this collection. As usual, some stories worked better for me than others. Overall, I enjoyed it well enough but it won‘t stay with me. ❄️
A novel that is woven together using seven historic events in British history, starting with VE Day. A very pleasant and interesting read. 🇬🇧
How could this possibly be Morrison‘s first book? It is incredibly well done. 😍
Rereading this after 20 years for book club. I forgot how good it is. Excellent for discussion. 🛖
I‘m enjoying this story but I‘m a little unsure of its worthiness for a spot on the Booker Longlist. I still have a fair bit to read so perhaps I‘ll change my mind by the end. 🤷♀️
Day at the beach with Stephen King. Such a fun read. 🐉
If you like strong character and family stories, you can‘t go wrong with Ann Patchett. 🍊
This book was both unique and interesting. I love when I find something unusual to read. My only criticism is that I thought the author strayed away from her thesis at times but it was still a pretty good read. 🧮
This is a sweeping historical romance with all the sights and sounds of an exotic India and it appears to be a treasured favourite of many readers. Honestly I found it dragged terribly and was very dated, to the point where I became impatient with it. 🕌
This is a quiet but lovely little book that gives us bits and pieces of the author‘s life woven into the daily journal of a small bookshop in an Italian village. It‘s packed full of book titles and has a slow meandering pace that is perfect for lazy summer afternoon reading. 📖
I loved the story, the style and the atmosphere of this book, although I have to say I thought the ending was weak, especially because there is so much the author could have done with this great story. The last 10% of the book just sort of fizzled out. 🐝
Reading this for book club and we are all struggling. I‘ve done an awful lot of supplementary reading and I know all the academic analysis, but it hasn‘t really helped me to make sense of what the author is doing in this book. I don‘t dislike it. I‘m actually intrigued, but quite frustrated. 🤷♀️
Love this literary journal. It‘s expensive for me to order it from the U.K. but it is worth the indulgence. 💗
This collection was fine. They probably shouldn‘t have started the collection with Alice Munro because she was a hard act to follow. Everything else paled by comparison. 🍁
A very easy and relaxing read. I spent as much time googling the art work as I did reading the book. 🖼️
Margaret Atwood turned me on to the poems of Robert Service and I have totally enjoyed this collection. They are very readable and bounce between dramatic and humorous. 🛷
I‘m not going to say much because I hate to trash a book, especially when so many other people enjoyed it. But I will say that it was a terrible choice for me. I can hardly believe someone published it. 😵💫
This was a great book to pick up and spot read for a few minutes each day. It‘s full of the stories of artistic people from all over the world that flocked to Paris, especially between the wars. Paris was the place to be, especially for writers. 🇫🇷
My 4th Shirley Hazzard novel and I adore this author with her intelligent complex writing. She is in a very select circle of my favourite authors. ❣️❣️❣️
I had a few issues with this book. It didn‘t work for me in a couple of ways. But overall it was a good story and I liked it more than not so I suppose it deserves a 👍
A book of Russian Fairytales with gorgeous illustrations on every page. 🤴
I thought this was excellent. Full of tension and intrigue. Highly recommend for historical fiction readers. It‘s the first of a trilogy and I eagerly look forward to the next one. ⛪️
This is an accomplished story by a seasoned author. I totally see why people are loving it. But truth be told, I was rather bored with it. I‘m still giving it a thumbs up because it is a quality book, but perhaps just not a big success for me. 🤷♀️
Every sentence is perfectly structured. Every word is carefully chosen. Shirley Hazzard might be a new favourite author for me. I thoroughly enjoyed this. 🏆
Now this should be interesting. ⚱️
For me this book was perfectly average. It was an engaging story, although it got a bit old toward the end. It had an interesting concept, although it had a lot of you could critique. Not awful but not really good either. Just fine. 👌🏼
This book was so thoroughly researched and presented. It was a lot to take in and was even difficult to consume at times due to the nature of some of the treatments that mentally ill people were subjected to. The stuff of nightmares. But if you are interested in this subject matter, you will learn a great deal from this book. I definitely recommend it to the right reader. 🏨
I read this about a week ago and I remember enjoying it and really liking the main character, but oddly enough I don‘t remember much about the book. So I give it a thumbs up for being an enjoyable read but it obviously didn‘t leave much of an impression on me. 🤷♀️
I should have enjoyed this more than I did. I like the themes and liked the writing, but there were too many dry patches for me to say I truly enjoyed it. So I will just say it was not bad, it was just okay, or it was middle of the road. 🧞♀️
I‘m glad so many people enjoy this story. It probably deserves it‘s place as a classic. Unfortunately it didn‘t work for me. I found the writing very plain and I wasn‘t crazy about the P.O.V. Of the animal. I was sort of bored. 😑
I have to give this a thumbs up based on it‘s reputation. The truth is, I find this whole series just so so. This is just my personal taste at play here and I don‘t want to be lukewarm about a book that is so loved from a series that is so loved. I guess there‘s no accounting for my taste. 🤙
I‘ve been enjoying this book more than I even thought I would. Each day offers a chosen passage from one of the plays or Sonnets along with brief commentary. It‘s never more than a 5 minute read and I find myself eagerly looking forward to picking it up every day. 🗓
I always struggle to get comfortable in an Edith Wharton book. I don‘t dislike her but I never find it to be enjoyable reading. Something about her style. 🤷♀️
This book does an excellent job of being exactly what it is, which is an incredible story told through hard science. It doesn‘t have much literary merit but that‘s okay because that‘s not goal. Science geeks will love it but people like me will appreciate it more on the screen than on the page. Either way, it‘s an impressive story. 🚀